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‘The jewel’ of East Naples: Sugden Park offers freshwater fun and family recreation

Lance Shearer
Correspondent

Often, it can seem as though all the cool stuff happens in North Naples.

New, avant garde restaurants, upscale developments of multi-million dollar homes, and even upgraded infrastructure all seem to “follow the money” to the northern part of Collier County’s coastal corridor.

But Sugden Park is an exception. The massive park, wrapped around a 60-acre freshwater lake just off the East Tamiami Trail, boasts facilities available nowhere else in the area. Sugden Regional Park, as it is formally known, hosts a variety of programs taking advantage of Lake Avalon, including sailing, kayaking, water skiing instruction and demonstrations, paddle boat rentals, and one of the only freshwater beaches in Collier County.

“Sugden Park is a tremendous asset for the East Naples community,” said Collier County Commissioner Donna Fiala, who represents the citizens who live in the area. “Not only do you have the water, but there is a lot of just open space. Kids can go out in the big open field and make it whatever they want, while their families are picnicking or whatever. It doesn’t have to be structured programs.”

FILE - Paula DiGrigoli with one of the program's first lifejackets. Collier County's Parks & Rec. Dept., together with the Safe and Healthy Children's Coalition, launched their loaner lifejacket program at Sugden Regional Park.
FILE - Swimmers wait to start in the dawn's light. The Naples American Sprint Triathlon and Duathlon was run early in the morning at Sugden Regional Park.

“It’s a jewel, with that 60-acre Lake Avalon,” agreed Barry Williams, director of Collier County Parks & Recreation. “There’s not another park like it in that regard. It’s a nice little oasis.”

The organized programs for sailing and water skiing are “some of the best in the county,” said Williams. “The sailing program Patricia Rosen runs is unbelievable, and the water skiing program is always sold out.” Water skiing is run by park manager Michael Toolan, who is a USA Certified Water Ski Instructor. “He can teach anyone to ski,” said Williams. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

FILE - Nicholas Groos, 14, who helped build the rowboat, takes it for a spin. The boats of the Sheriff's Office Build-A-Boat program got a "sea trial" at Lake Avalon in East Naples' Sugden Park. Sugden Regional Park in East Naples offers a host of activities, many centered around the 60-acre lake.

Lake Avalon, said Williams, was created as a borrow pit for fill used in constructing and expanding the Tamiami Trail. According to a bronze plaque at the site, the park was dedicated in 1998, with the land acquired in 1995 with financial assistance from the Florida Communities Trust and Florida Forever Funds – all of which probably rates not a moment’s thought from the hordes of children who swarm over the waterfront, extensive playground, and numerous covered picnic shelters that dot the park’s grounds.

These gazebos, some of them large enough to put a roof over a gathering of dozens of people, number at least eight, and can be reserved through the Parks & Rec Department. This is also true for the large field, said Fiala, as well as the stage and amphitheater at the park.

FILE - Participants enjoy the Adaptive Sailing Program at Sugden Regional Park, in which special needs sailors get to experience the freedom of sailing. Sugden Regional Park in East Naples offers a host of activities, many centered around the 60-acre lake.

“Groups can rent the field or the stage, and have a concert or whatever,” she said. Sugden also hosts popular sports tourism events, such as the American Sprint Triathlon that begins with an early-morning swim across the lake, and the “water cross” jet skiing races coming to the park in mid-September.

That event will also feature demonstrations of hover boards, in which jets of high-pressure water help intrepid boarders soar out of the lake and over 20 feet up into the air. A weekly farmers’ market is also scheduled to begin this fall.

FILE - A couple uses one of the covered pavilions scattered throughout the park. Sugden Regional Park in East Naples offers a host of activities, many centered around the 60-acre lake.

In all, though, said Williams, “September is our slowest month” at Sugden. “The kids are back in school, and it’s before all the people come down.” That makes it a good time for families to visit the park for non-structured family fun, picnicking and splashing in the water at the broad sandy beach on Lake Avalon.

Speaking of schools and sand, the sand on that beach is being renourished with sand recycled from Collier County schools, as they redo their recreation areas with mulch. The Parks & Rec Department is also in the midst of replacing much of the extensive playground equipment at Sugden Park with brand new jungle gyms, climbing towers and swings.

“It’s just time to replace it,” said Williams. “This is a pretty harsh environment, out in the sun and humidity, and close to the Gulf. You can only get 15 or 20 years out of it.”

FILE - Sugden Regional Park in East Naples offers a host of activities, many centered around the 60-acre lake.

Safety is paramount, especially dealing with an attractive, tempting body of water. Sugden Park was the scene of the accidental drowning death of 2-year-old Daniella Alexandra Pantoja in 2013, which provided the spark for loaner lifejacket program, titled “Kids Don’t Float, Lifejackets Do.”

Lifejackets are provided free of charge, hanging on a rack by the beach, but as a sign on the rack says, “a lifejacket is not a babysitter.” Parents need to be aware when their kids are near the water.

So stay safe, but have fun. Labor Day weekend is a great time to discover the park hidden in your “big backyard” still uncrowded by seasonal visitors, and visit for a picnic or a boat ride. And if not Labor Day weekend, the weekend after that. Remember, the “snowbirds” will be back before you know it.

If you go

Sugden Regional Park

4284 Avalon Drive, East Naples, just off US 41

Hours – 8 a.m. to dusk, every day

239-252-4000

colliergov.net